Effects of quercetin, a plant flavonol, on the two-stage transformation in vitro.

Quercetin was examined for the effects on the two-stage chemical transformation of BALB/3T3 cells. Quercetin showed initiating action to induce transformation in the cells which were treated with quercetin and subsequently with 0.49 microM 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA). Both the proportion of dishes with transformed foci and the average number of foci per dish increased with the concentration of quercetin (15-45 microM). However, initiating treatment with quercetin did not induce transformation without subsequent TPA treatment. Quercetin inhibited the promotion caused by 0.49 microM TPA in the transformation initiated by 1.9 microM 2-methylcholanthrene (MCA). The inhibitory effect of 30 microM quercetin was 56% in the number of foci per dish. Thus quercetin was found to have initiating effect on the transformation of BALB/3T3 cells, but to restrain the promotion by TPA.